Marrying Market Timing with Human-Centered Urban Design

My thesis sought to better understand the interaction between transit investments and property values. Specifically I sought to understand when in the investment cycle residential properties went from their pre- to post- transit value and what urban design impacts could help amplify this change. For each of the corridors studied market sales transaction data was collected for all residential properties that were within a half-mile walkshed of each new station. From this data we calculated growth rate premiums that existed for the property values in the transit area walksheds versus a control as well as how these premiums evolved over time. Surveys were also conducted in each of the corridors to document and quantify the existence of various characteristics associated with walkable human-centered urban design. This data was applied to the market sales data in a multiple regression analysis to determine which urban design features were most associated with higher property value growth rates.